530 Meeting of the British Association. [ Oct., 
years of study, those in which the mind is most capable of acquiring 
knowledge, are spent in great measure in learning Latin, Greek, 
Mathematics, or Divinity, and perhaps some modern language ; 
and it is not till the age of twenty is past that one single step is 
taken towards the object required, and then the student is expected 
to compress the acquirement of Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Ana- — 
tomy, Physiology, and the practice of Medicine, Surgery, and 
Midwifery, into the inadequate space of three years. What chance 
has a medical man of understanding the action of the chemical, 
mechanical, and electrical forces in the body, until a fundamental 
knowledge of chemistry, mechanics, and electricity has been first 
obtained ? 
The result is that chemists of the higher class, who have been 
hampered in their scientific education by no obsolete rules and 
traditions, are rapidly encroaching on the domain of the medical 
man. They not only understand fully the nature and uses of food 
and medicines, but they are becoming able to detect the first 
appearance of a multitude of chemical diseases. Their habits of 
investigation and their knowledge of the nature of the forces 
acting im the body are gradually leading them to become advisers 
in all questions regarding the health of the community. Intending 
to demonstrate this part of his argument by reference to a recent 
event, Dr. Bence Jones made the following remark :—“In con- 
firmation of my opinion of the direction in which the treatment of 
disease is progressing, I may just refer to the cattle plague, which 
in 1745 was treated by Dr. Mortimer, at that time Secretary of 
the Royal Society, and therefore one of the most scientific physicians 
in the country, with antimony and bleeding. In 1866, two 
chemists (Dr. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., and Mr. Crookes, F.R.8.) 
gave the only useful suggestions for combating the disease, namely, 
by the arrest or the destruction of the poison by chemical agents.” 
The first paper read was a preliminary report on the chemical 
nature of cast-iron, by Dr. Matthiesson. In it the author princi- 
pally confined himself to an outline of the investigation which he 
proposed to make: an account of the results being deferred till 
next year. 
Mr. Weldon read a paper on a new process for the manufacture 
of Soda, by the use of fluorine. The details were somewhat com- 
plicated and involving numerous chemical transformations. The 
result was said to produce soda without the consumption of anything 
except salt and coal. One great advantage of this process appears 
to be that the soda is yielded in the caustic state and not as 
carbonate. If successful on the large scale this will be a very 
important chemical discovery, and the profits of it millions. 
After a paper by Dr. Attfield on the assay of coal for crude 
